Ukraine ‘re-examines’ ceasefire plan after two rebel votes held in east

Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko threatened to scrap a peace plan with Pro-Russian separatist rebels, while calling an emergency meeting of his security chiefs to discuss new ways of dealing with the separatist challenge in the east after rebel elections that were denounced by Kiev and the West. Organisers of the twin ballots said insurgent leaders had emerged victorious in both Donetsk and Luhansk — two Russian speaking areas of eastern Ukraine — throwing down the gauntlet to Poroshenko, who vehemently opposed the election.

The central election commission deems Alexander Zakharchenko to be the elected head of the Donetsk People’s Republic.

Russian president Vladimir Putin

"Plotnitsky got the majority of the votes in the Luhansk People’s Republic elections," a spokesman said. The rogue votes, which Kiev says Russia encouraged, could create a new "frozen conflict" in post-Soviet Europe and further threaten the territorial unity of Ukraine, which lost control of its Crimean peninsula in March when it was annexed by Russia. The two elections were the latest twist in a geopolitical crisis that began with the popular overthrow of Ukraine’s Moscow-backed leader, Viktor Yanukovich, last February.

We are concerned by a Russian Foreign Ministry statement today that seeks to legitimise these sham ‘elections’.

Bernadette Meehan, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council

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